ELMONT, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A huge cleanup was under way Tuesday on Long Island following a bizarre incident that left thousands of homes without power earlier in the morning.

Police said a 53-year-old transit worker stole a bucket truck from a Metropolitan Transportation Authority yard in Jamaica. Joel Grasman was seen smirking as he was led out of Nassau County’s 5th Precinct in handcuffs, CBS 2’s Janelle Burrell reported.

Nassau County Police Inspector Kenneth Lack said Grasman had broken into the yard overnight to steal welding equipment and took the bucket truck to get away.

A bucket truck pulled down wires and power poles in Elmont, Long Island on Aug. 27, 2013. (credit: CBS 2)

“He realizes the welding equipment will not fit in his personal truck, so he takes the truck to move the stolen equipment,” Lack said.

Grasman, a “light maintainer” at the facility and a 23-year employee of the agency, then drove the truck through the streets of Elmont with the boom raised, taking down trees and power lines around 4 a.m., police said. It is unclear if Grasman raised the bucket truck’s boom intentionally.

Man Runs Amok With Stolen Bucket Truck; Blacks Out Thousands On Long Island

“It sounded like he was hitting cars. I thought he was hitting all the cars on my block,” one man told CBS 2’s Kathryn Brown. “I got a 2-year-old car so I ran outside and I saw wires down all over my car, tree branches all over the car, all over the neighborhood. Total chaos.”

“There was a series of explosions last night like something out of a ‘Frankenstein’ movie,” resident Michael Edan added. “Earlier the lights were flickering on and off and just as I came outside they went off for good and I started hearing this stuff blow up. It was eerie.”

“It just went ‘boom,’ and you just saw what looked like fireworks,” resident Sabrina Gardner said.

Man Runs Amok With Stolen Bucket Truck; Blacks Out Thousands On Long Island

The truck took down trees, dozens of utility poles and eight traffic signals. Officials said it will take days to make repairs.

Long Island Power Authority officials said the truck took down distribution and transmission lines, leaving roughly 6,000 customers without power at one point.

Lack said no one was injured in the incident.

“It was fortunate that it was in early morning hours; that there was not many people or cars on the street at the time,” Lack said. “Very fortunate no one was hurt. Significant injuries could have occurred both from the falling poles, the wires, the possibility of getting electrocuted, It’s really quite amazing.”

Meacham and Corona avenues, Dutch Broadway, and K Street were closed because of downed poles. Exit 15 of the Southern State Parkway was also closed off to traffic.